quote:On the evening of 23 June 1858, in the northern Italian city of Bologna, police of the Papal States, of which Bologna was then part, arrived at the home of a Jewish couple, Salomone ("Momolo") and Marianna Padovani Mortara, to seize one of their eight children, six-year-old Edgardo, and transport him to Rome to be raised by the Catholic Church.
The police had orders from the authorities in Rome, authorised by Pope Pius IX. Church officials had been told that a Catholic servant girl of the Mortaras, Anna Morisi, had baptized Edgardo while he was ill because she feared that he would otherwise die and go to Hell. Under the law of the Papal States, Edgardo's baptism, even if illegal, was valid, and made him a Christian. Jews could not legally raise a Christian child, even their own. In 1912, in his relation in favor of the beatification of Pope Pius IX, Edgardo himself noted that the laws of the Papal States did not allow Catholics to work in the homes of Jewish families. That law was widely disregarded.
We saw a play about this called Edgardo Mine It was fascinating, and troubling, and highly relevant. If you get a chance to see it, then go. Take your kids with you, though, so you can keep an eye on them!
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As the wikiarticle mentions, the play was written in response to the beatification of Pius IX.
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The play did an excellent job of given several perspectives on this incident, including the pope's and the mother's and father's.
In the notes to the play, they quoted the playwrite as saying that this was a struggle for him as he tried to figure out what he would do in the shoes of each of these people. I'd say he succeeded admirably.
It happened at a fulcrum point in the Church's history when the pope was both a secular and a religious power, and there was a strong movement in Italy to eliminate the secular part of that power (control over the papal states).
That the pope would order the removal of a son from his loving family apparently gave the French enough concern for them to withdraw their troops protecting the papal states, and the pope. From that point on, the fate of the papal kingdom was sealed.
It was a horrible thing to do to that boy and that family. And he knew it, but was utterly convinced of his need to answer to a higher purpose. Some of the things he decided only made sense from that perspective, and they were so, so cruel.
The playwrite also did a decent job of presenting Edgardo's (by the end of the play, a priest) own public views on the case. He loved the pope. Today, we'd call it Stockholm syndrome or something -- identifying with his kidnappers, and brainwashed into their way of thinking (he was only six years old, after all).
But at the time, Farther Mortara was outspoken in favor of what had been done to him.
And yet I know at least I left the theater outraged on his behalf.
It was also kind of eye-opening to see how recent these events were. Father Mortara died just a couple of months before the Nazis over-ran Belgium (where he died) and started rounding up anyone with any jewish heritage.
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rivka, I wasn't saying you weren't aware of it...if that's what you post is reacting to. Sorry if I gave that impression. I learned of it from this play and was appalled. If I'd known of this case, and the Church's continued support for the "correctness" of Pius' decision it probably would've helped me leave the Catholic church a long time before I finally did.
I find the whole episode to be so strikingly immoral as to be completely obvious, even if we take into account "the times."
I have no opinion on Pius' canonization because I really don't know what it is based on. I don't think saints in the Catholic church have to be perfect models of behavior, and the tradition would seem not to require that.
It seems a shame to undo so much good that seemed to be coming from the Catholic church regarding messages of sorrow over the church's inaction and even complicity in the holocaust. This was a horrible thing to do, even if the end result was "good" for the boy (debatable at best) and for the church (undoubtedly the Church today is better off not having the pope also be a temporal ruler of any consequence -- at least I believe that is the case). But in discussing this play's message afterwards, I found myself completely rejecting the "God works in mysterious ways" argument justifying the actions of Pius and his crew. They got there by earnest belief in the rightness of what they were doing, and through prayer, but I do not for an instant believe that God ordered this boy to be baptized (a claim that wasn't made) or that God ordered Pius to keep him from his parents.
If anything, God salvaged part of the situation by getting the Catholic church out of the state-craft business of the middle ages. It needed a change and this event was at least a partial catalyst for it.
It's not unprecedented in Scripture for God to remove a child from his parents and use that situation for the greater good. But...well...I don't really think that justification applies here. I think what we have is a man sincere in his convictions making some very bad decisions that had some rather predictable bad consequences for all he held dear. And the fact that he felt he had little choice in the matter is really not much balm to spread over the wounds.
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quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: I wasn't saying you weren't aware of it...if that's what you post is reacting to.
It wasn't, and I am sorry that I gave that impression (which I realized I had while I was driving away from home, and knew there was nothing I could do about it).
The thing is, Mortara's story was far from unique, though it is probably the most well-known. Pius IX made a practice of stealing Jewish children from their homes. That he has been beatified and is being suggested for sainthood disturbs me greatly.
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